I’ll be the first to admit, this year, planning for Thanksgiving had totally freaked me out. The whole concept is super intimidating. Allergies are really inconvenient with everyone cooking for so many people. It’s really hard not feel like one more complication in a hodgepodge of people, places, and things.
As important as it is to me that my allergy doesn’t inconvenience others, I also don’t want my meal to feel like an after-thought. I want it to be well planned and easily incorporated into the Thanksgiving tradition. At the same time, though, I felt the urge to find something new. This is, after all, my first Thanksgiving since my diagnosis.
If I’m going to change my traditional Thanksgiving meal, why not commit to the bit?
This is why I love the internet! There are so many incredible creators out there that have helped me find some cool ideas. The recipes I’ve chosen came from a few different sources. Some started off as vegan and others did not. They’ve each provided a fun perspective for my “new” Thanksgiving.
So, let’s dig in!
1. Harvest Stuffing from Food Faith Fitness
This is where my boyfriend corrects me. Technically, it’s only stuffing if it goes inside of a bird. That makes this dressing and not stuffing. However, in order to maintain as much normalcy in my Thanksgiving as possible, I am ignoring his correction and calling it stuffing!
The recipe itself was super fun to make. It was also SO easy. Instead of soaking the bread in an egg mixture, like in traditional stuffing, you soak this in chicken broth. That made for a much more flavorful dish with almost no effort. How easy of a substitution is that for literally any stuffing recipe? Problem solved.
This stuffing has so many amazing flavors. With pears, cranberries, and toasted pecans, it’s bursting with wonderful fall ingredients. In my personal opinion, it was a little sweet. There was a lot of cinnamon and that, in combination with the pears, was a little overpowering.
I have every intention of making a variation on this for Thanksgiving dinner. I think less cinnamon and fewer pears, but maybe more of the poultry seasoning. I’m looking to lean into the savory a little more, but all in all it’s a delicious recipe.
2. Sweet Potato Honey Cornbread from Black Girls Who Brunch
This recipe was definitely a departure from my traditional idea of cornbread.
When I think of cornbread I think of it being a little bit crumbly. Not dry necessarily, but definitely not super moist. The cornbread I’m used to is a little sweet, but not so much that it feels out of place in a savory setting.
For starters, to save time, I used a cornbread box mix instead of all of the dry ingredients. To the box mix, I added one cup of sweet potato, a flax seed egg, unsweetened vanilla almond milk, and about half of the honey that was called for. If I’m being honest, I was nervous about it being too sweet.
The resulting cornbread was different for a few reasons, but none of them were bad. The sweet potato added a richness to the bread. I loved it! That combined with the honey made for a mildly sweet cornbread. The texture overall wasn’t very crumbly, which in my mind made it less like cornbread. The changes I made to the recipe may have been the problem, though.
That said, this cornbread was delicious. It was just way different than I expected. I thoroughly recommend this recipe for your Thanksgiving dinner this year.
3. Maple Pecan Bread Pudding from Connoisseurus Veg
I’d like to start off by acknowledging that bread pudding isn’t one of the most common Thanksgiving dishes, but I found this recipe and wanted to give it a try!
This recipe was super exciting because I hadn’t thought about how to make an egg-free bread pudding. Essentially, you make a cornstarch slurry in cold almond milk. As that heats up and mixes with the maple syrup, it almost becomes like a caramel. I’ll take caramel over eggs any day!
The other thing that makes this recipe incredible is the crumble on top. Mix brown sugar, pecans, and butter together and put it on top of the bread pudding before baking. How could you possibly go wrong with that?
I’ll answer that for you. You can’t.
4. Pumpkin Roll from Make it Dairy Free
My first ever attempt at a pumpkin roll, and this went pretty well. It was a new experience for me. I had a lot to learn about the process in order to get this “rolling” (sorry, not sorry).
The first thing I needed was a jelly roll pan (affiliate link). The non-stick pan I found on Amazon worked beautifully and was super affordable. I’ve supplied the affiliate link so that you can see the one I used. Plus, if you use my link, I can make some money as an Amazon Associate which is always nice.
I also learned that a pumpkin roll isn’t a last-minute thing. You have to bake it, roll it, cool it, fill it, and then chill it for few hours at a minimum. You can’t rush the process. If you want a structurally sound roll, it takes time.
The original recipe is totally vegan, but I used regular butter and cream cheese. I also had a friend coming over that was gluten-free so I substituted in almond flour. The result stuck a little to the parchment paper, so the roll wasn’t pretty on the outside. But, when I cut it into slices, it was beautiful!
This pumpkin roll is also super tasty! Using unsweetened applesauce as an egg substitute made for a very moist cake. I discuss that a little bit more in my post about the best egg substitutes to use in baking. This recipe is 100% a winner. It’s probably about to become a Thanksgiving staple in my home.
5. Leftover Turkey Shepherd’s Pie from Yellow Bliss Road
So what do you do with leftovers? Many people suggest sandwiches of some kind. It’s not that I don’t love a good sandwich, but I was looking for something a little extra.
That’s when I stumbled across this recipe for Leftover Turkey Shepherd’s Pie. I can’t believe I didn’t think of that before… Holy cow! I was so excited to try this recipe!
Full disclosure: because I don’t currently have any Thanksgiving leftovers, I made everything for this pie. That’s why it looks like I used ground turkey in the picture… it’s because I did!
Using leftover turkey, mashed potatoes, and gravy, you build your shepherd’s pie. Add in some frozen peas and carrots with some onion and garlic and it’s done. So. Easy. The part of this recipe that’s a total game changer is the potato layer. By mixing half of the cheddar cheese into the potatoes, you get an extra level of flavor you didn’t know you needed.
This recipe has changed the way I do shepherd’s pie forever!
As always, I’d love to hear from you. Let me know all about your favorite Thanksgiving traditions! It’d be great to connect with other people working with allergies this holiday season. If you have any questions for me, I’m totally open to that as well.
Happy Thanksgiving!